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The religious pamphlet being handed out at Ravenhill
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The religious pamphlet getting handed out a Ravenhill
Holy rollers are targeting the ‘Holy Grail’ of Ulster rugby.
They’re blitzing Ravenhill on match days and nights with tracts and preaching religion.
The last time that happened was in 1999 when Ulster won the European Championship.
Then, the Province played a match on a Sunday... the first, and last, ever played at Ravenhill on ‘the Sabbath’.
Ulster played Leicester in Belfast then, on their way to the final at the then Lansdowne Road in Dublin when they demolished French side Colomiers to lift the cup for the first, and only, time.
But on that quarter-final Sunday afternoon against the Leicester Tigers, thousands of fans on their way to Ravenhill were ‘regaled’ by the rantings of the late Rev. Ian Paisley who told them they would all ‘burn in Hell’ for desecrating the Sabbath.
The former Hellfire and brimstone Moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church – and power-sharing First Minister of the Stormont Assembly – passed away in September.
But now his gospel-preaching ‘ghost’ has returned to Ravenhill.
Red Hand fans are now being targeted by hot-gospellers handing out religious tracts imploring them to give up pints and become pious.
And they’re pinpointing Christian players on the Ulster team to underpin their religious zeal.
They even use a player in an Ulster rugby shirt holding a ball on the front page of their tract, headlining it ‘A SAFE PAIR OF HANDS’.
The tracts were handed out again at last night Ravenhill game against Gwent Dragons.
And the religious leaflet again names four Ulster star players – Andrew Trimble, Paul Marshall, Paddy McAllistar and Springbok superstar and Ulster scrum-half Ruan Pienaar.
All four are committed Christians – along with others in the Ulster panel who are known among both players and supporters as ‘The God Squad’.
The religious tract says of those named four that they have ‘all had an input in Ulster Rugby in recent years’.
It adds: “Along with the rest of the team they have one thing in common: they love rugby!
“While these four men love rugby, they have a love for someone which lasts even when the game is over: their sights are set higher than the posts of any game.
“Ruan Pienaar said: ‘I have always believed, with my Christianity, that there’s so much more to life than rugby”
And it exhorts the Ulster rugby fans: “You don’t believe today that your hands are the safest to catch or pass a ball at international level.
“You’re happy to leave that to someone better than yourself.”
And it says of Jesus: “You must come to Him and trust Him committing your soul to His safe hands for eternity.”
Said one fan going into the game at Ravenhill last night: “We could do with a pair of safe hands – from someone, anyone.
“We’ve already been beaten by Leicester and Toulon in the European Championship this season, mainly by our own handling mistakes, and any pair of safe hands would do to keep us in that competition now.”
* For the record, in 1999, when the Rev. Ian Paisley and Co. picketed Ravenhill, Ulster won the still-coveted European trophy.